Fatal accidents in the workplace can be caused by work conditions, aggravation of a chronic disease or alcohol intoxication. The purpose of this paper was to show the influence of ethyl alcohol on accidents in the workplace with regard to the occupation and age of the examined individuals. A group of victims whose deaths resulted from other external factors (suicide, poisoning by non alcoholic agents, etc.) was separated and not included. Statistical analysis of the autopsies carried out in the Forensic Medicine Department, Silesian University of Medicine, Katowice in the years 1992-2001 showed that accidents in the workplace amounted to 4-6% of the total number of deaths in the space of a year with alcohol (ethanol) being the causative factor in 3-15%.